TDF STAGES takes a behind the scenes look, or rather a look on them, in this article about Lucas Hanth's Isaac's Eye opening this Saturday night! If you can brave Nemo, we have Pick Your Price Matinees Sat & Sun @ 2pm and another Pick Your Price Performance again on Sunday night @ 7pm. Brave the cold for deep discounts on brilliant theater!

"Isaac’s Eye” plays with history and lies

You think you understand where the stage is. You think the play is only happening in front of you. Then an actor writes on the wall beside your head. Or he flips over an anonymous piece of wood in the corner, and you realize it has writing on the other side.

Suddenly, the entire room crackles to life. Every inch of the theatre buzzes with potential.

That’s the visceral power ofIsaac’s Eye, now at the Ensemble Studio Theatre. A new play by Lucas Hnath, it imagines a turning point for Isaac Newton, when the young scientist must decide if he’ll follow his ideas, his emotions, or his faith in God.

To make that story theatrical, Hnath plays fast and loose with facts. Characters speak with modern slang, for instance, and some of them never actually existed. However, they tell us when they’re making things up, and when they tell us something true, something that actually happened in Newton’s life, they write it on the wall with a piece of chalk.

Eventually, the theatre is covered with scribbled history. It becomes oddly thrilling, waiting for a character to grab the chalk or turn over a placard that reveals a message. By the final, emotional moments, the fictional drama on stage is surrounded by Newton’s real life.